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60 days left to Christmas!

There are literally 60 days left to christmas to make the transformation you made in 2010 complete. Eight weeks left and although it may not sound a like a long time, its long enough to make deep inroads into your overall wellbeing and feel as strong and as fit as possible before christmas.

With the possibility that 2011 will be bleak for many people in economic terms, its vital you approach the new year as healthy and as energetic as possible. When this physical condition is reached, the chances are that you are going to be much more optimistic too, just as the right time of year when most people could be described as on “a bit of a downer”!!

You are also competing with the onset of a different season right now. Autumn is well and truly here, and we had the first proper frost of the autumn today. My first run of the day also meant my hands were stinging with the cold, so it was my first shock to the system of winter, and i’m glad i’ve got it behind me now!!!

Dont be put off at al either by the colder air this time of year. Expect to feel a bit short of breath especially doing outdoor exercise at the moment, the new sharper and decidely lower temperatures may take a couple of weeks to get used to, but once you have got used to them, there will be no looking back for you!!!

Working outdoors is always desirable. Any exercise is good but you tend to get exposed to lots of germs and colds etc in gyms up and down the land, almost a breeding ground for all types of viruses etc.

The time really is here to keep your outside workouts going in, and this will make the transition of the winter temperatures that much easier to take and get used to.

You will probably save of fortune in electricity too, once you have been outside training, you will know exactly what i mean. The difference this time of year between the outside and inside is at its most noticeable. Going from sometimes sub-zero temperatures first thing in the morning back to the 70 degree temperatures often experienced inside can be dramatic and an eye-opener!!!

With most place quiet from now until christmas, this is a great opportunity to keep your eating consistently good, and focus on the raw foods that serve your body so well. Im talking lots of fruit and veggies which really give your body the foundation it deserves going into our colder, wetter winters.

I’ve always tried to stress that if you concentrate on getting your insides right and healthy, then the outside your body will look after itself. Your body and your appearance are always a reflection on how you live your life, how much good food you put in, if you’re getting enough fluids in, if you’re sleeping enough and if you are putting some good quality training in.

8 weeks left to the big day, lets pick up the pace and make sure we end 2010 on a massive high!!!

Twitt
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Never short of workouts

You really do have several workouts available this weekend.

All these posts are designed to get rid of any excuses you may have left in your cupboard!

So we have gone over inside workouts this week, you can do them in ANY weather, there are no snow storms in your living room or spare room? It is not too cold or wet either in your living room and you can even have music on in the background! This is a workout you can do ANY time, so if you have an excuse, you know its not possible for me to believe you!!!

What about your outside workouts?

Are you going to get out there and do them? Or are you going to put on your dressing gown at 6pm in the evening and drink a bottle of wine a night, a takeway most nights or the biggest bar of chocolate its humanly possibly to eat? Lots of people really do live their lives like this, and need rescuing from themselves and need to be introduced to an active lifestyle, it really will change your life and make you far more optimistic for the future!!!

If its cold inside, get out there and do your workouts outside, you will soon get warm, you will soon get some adrenalin through your vains and pretty soon you will be invigorated to go and do something!!! I bet you when you get back inside, you will switch the heating off and wonder how you felt it cold in the first place!!! Staying indoors all weekend and complaining its “cold” doesnt wash either, it really doesnt, and sometimes you need to shake yourself to get out of this vicious circle of feeling sorry for yourself.

Theres a million things you can do this weekend, and getting out there and being active is guaranteed to make you feel better, give you more self-confidence in your abilities and really set the tone for all weekends coming up to christmas!!!

For starters i would look at it this weekend for walking up and down some very challenging terrain but with great scenery. These place include pembrey country park, burry port beach, burry port harbour, sandy water park, mumbles promenade, mumbles mountain, beaches-langland, caswell, llangennith, rhosilli, swiss valley reservoir, millennium coastal path, any cycle path!, burry port park, and there are about a million other places i could list right now for you to try out but i think the above list is enough to get you started!!!!

I know many of you will know more “secret” places so please try them all out, it makes life far more interested if you try different and fresher venues!!

No time to waste in shops the weekend, get out and there and do something that will get your blood going again!!!

Twitt
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Having a go is the number one thing!

We touched on the fact that we need to be more performance orientated in our training and hopefully, im not trying to say here that half hearted exercise is a waste of time because its not.

We all have times when we are not really in the mood to exercise. For example, some of us may go out on a Friday or Saturday night, have a few drinks and wake up with a bad head. The first thought on our minds may not be going for a run or any workout of any kind!

However, I have said on here countless times how important it is to train the morning after  the night before. Anyone who has done this will tell you that “performance” is definitely not as important on that Sunday morning!!

Simply the process of getting through a workout is the big achievement, and it will make you feel incredibly better. This whole attitude makes you realise that nobody’s perfect, not one single person and we all like a laugh from time to time.

Jean I think is doing so well now because she still has a drink at the weekend and the odd treat, because she has been so good in the week. I don’t think its sustainable for ANYONE to go without a treat for too long.

Remember this workout plan and eating regime is not really just that, it’s the lifestyle change that’s the important thing!

Simon from Chicago has been e-mailing me about his progress and about the fact that he likes the short intense workouts inside. He loves them too because of chicago’s notoriously freezing winters, when outside workouts are almost impossible, especially with his asthma.

Simon asked the other day should he do 5 inside workouts per week instead of 3? I said not to and include 2 other cardio workouts instead. This will keep him fresh, still keep his performance high and avoid injury.

Its natural to want to do something a lot if you’re getting big results from it, but in this case more is definitely not better.

You need to let your muscles rest and recover ready for your next workout. Remember I keep on saying, this is a lifestyle change and it means that. For the rest of your life you need to have an achievable workout schedule and a good eating plan.

As I said, nobody’s expecting you to be perfect, but as long as you keep having a go week in week out, you will be very satisfied with a lifetime of good health!!

Twitt
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Check your workouts

So hows your workouts going and are they working?

Have you started off with good intentions but reverted to “your old ways”?

No doubt that the workouts i ask you to do are intense, are tough sometimes but the good part is that they are relatively short in duration. The main point of them is to get fitter and healthier, on EVERY measurable level there is simple as that!

So the song remains the same because it tends to work big time for most people.

The inside workouts need to work the whole body because you dont want to leave any body part out. Also, this is the most efficient way to train because you burn more calories, you burn more fat, you get greater lung capacity, you get a harder and leaner body, and they pretty much get you ready for anything after you’ve given them a chance to work.

So you need to pick 6-8 exercises at the very most in each workout, and aim to do them for a total of 3 circuits without a break, thats your goal but it wont come fast. You will need to give it some time but you WILL get there if you are consistent with your workouts and eat well.

The inside workouts i would do 3 times per week with a day off in between each of these workouts to give your body some rest. If you keep it to 3 days per week, you will remain fresh in your workouts and attitudes towards them so we’re thinking long term too.

The other days and i would suggest 2 other days, i would try and not too long boring walks, running or cycling, i would focus on intensity and actual performance in your workouts. So you need to be aiming for 30-40 minutes and look to improve regularly.

It could be doing 8 sprints for 30 yards up a steep hill, running forwards and backwards eventually (8 forwards and 8 backwards would be an awesome standard).

It could be interval sprints, jogging one streetlight, sprinting the next, jogging the next, sprinting the next and so on, you could easily be very tired in 5 minutes, and this is something you can work on until you get to 15-20 minutes, which will be a huge standard!!

The same with your cycling, in quieter times on the coastal path, you could do sprinting phases of say 100 yards and use a marker in front of you and give it your all until you get there. Then go quietly for the next 100 yards and then belt it again! This is a great way of becoming a better and more powerful cyclist, and bringing some huge benefits to your fitness.

If you cant be bothered to be running some days, go for a longer walk but pick the big hills and this will have a terrific effect on your legs and lungs, plus you get to take in some very good scenery in the area. All enjoyable workouts.

So the bottom line is to do work hard and in shorter periods of time to really improve your fitness all the time, and this will naturally reduce your body fat and automatically make you feel 10 years younger after 6 weeks of training this way.

Before attempting any of this harder training, make sure you have at least 6 weeks of building up slowly first, as this is definitely not beginner’s training! Make sure you have AT LEAST one day off complete rest, no matter how advanced your training is!

Good luck and let me know how you get on!

Twitt
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Staying positive in the gloom is vital to get you through!

People doing well should be encouraged and appreciated at the moment. There is more than enough bad news in the media pretty much all the time. Some people like bad news and thrive on negativity. With the spending review of the government coming out tomorrow, there will be a lot of edgy people out there.

So it may not be fashionable at the moment, but lets try and concentrate on the good things going on and whatever bad things come, let’s promise to work our way through them as best we can.

Jean for instance, is on a roll to say the least and seems to be gathering fresh new momentum every day. This is a perfect situation for jean, as when you have momentum, you will always feel fitter, lighter and more eager to take on more and more challenges, which will automatically bring further gains.

As we discuss regularly, its not a matter of doing more and more training in terms of minutes and hours, its about keeping the quality of your training very high and making sure your body gets used to very good performances, results in being in great physical condition.

The only thing that can stop almost constant progress is negativity. If we listen to people who are always negative, then we become negative and the emphasis then is never to even attempt anything positive, because the risks are then too “negative”, there is too much of “what if it goes wrong, or what if it doesn’t work” type of talk.

If we associate with more positive people, attempting meaningful things in life becomes the norm and second nature. Its this type of atmosphere and environment we really need and can thrive in. The talk then becomes of whats really possible in life and the rewards of attempting big things in your life.

How many times do we talk about on here about positive things? Every single day is the answer because this is the only way to go, the only option available and the only way to end up truly fulfilled and happy.

You have many different choices over the week, the month and year and those moments when you are faced with tougher decisions that directly affect your health are the critical ones. Staying and getting into shape is never as easy as A,B,C, but if you face all the difficult choices in a highly positive manner, the chances of your getting and staying there will be very high.

Will start posting more workout schedules from tomorrow so see what you think?

Twitt